Young Chippewas were poised to improve

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When one wave goes out, another comes in. That's the ebb and flow of high school sports, and the Manistee golf program was preparing for a change in tide this spring.

While the cancellation of the spring season didn't take away any Chippewa golfer's final year -- considering the team didn't have any seniors -- it still unfortunately wiped away prime time for a young squad to improve.

"When they started closing things down, especially the schools for that first couple weeks, you could just feel it coming," said Manistee golf coach Mike Swanson of the statewide response to the coronavirus pandemic. "The season just wasn't going to happen.

"It was too bad for our players too, because we were going to form into a team this year," he said. "We didn't have any seniors, so I had no idea who my top five players were going to be for regionals, but what we were going to get was a lot of athletes and a lot of players who were anxious to get better at golf.

"And as a coach, that's my favorite type to work with: Kids who want to get better and are ready to be coached."

Last season, Manistee was senior-heavy with a core of three experienced golfers leading the charge. Graduates Ethan Anderson, Jayden O'Hagan and Rocco Staszczak paced the Chippewas to fourth place among 20 teams in their Division 3 regional, just one place shy of qualifying to the state finals as a team.

O'Hagan made the cut individually, however, securing a spot to his first state finals in a regional playoff hole against his teammate, Anderson.

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Young Chippewas were poised to improve

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O'Hagan went on to complete his golf career with the Chippewas in the Division 3 state finals at Ferris State University's Katke Golf Course, where he carded a first-round 80, followed by an 87 on the second day for a combined score of 167 to tie for 32nd out of more than a hundred golfers.

The Chippewas, of course, would have had to move on without their top three golfers from a season ago, but they had plenty of players waiting in the wings, including juniors Raven Winter and Caleb Adamski, who rounded out the squad in last year's regional.

"It was going to be a learning year, but a fun year in that respect," Swanson said. "I was so excited to see who was going to turn out to be the best golfers.

"And with all those underclassmen, you'd expect to get better and better and then come back even stronger next year," he added. "Without this year of experience though, it just kind of changes things.

"But that's life sometimes. It's too bad, but it happened to everybody."

Swanson said the silver lining of a lost season -- particularly in golf -- is that players can take it upon themselves to improve throughout the next several months.

"Fortunately, golf is really an individual type of sport. So, I'm hoping kids will want to get out on the course this summer and play," he said. "Even without a season, golfers will still golf, I know that. So, that will be interesting to see if our guys take advantage of it.

"And this might even be an opportunity for a lot of players to leapfrog some others, because some will play and some won't," Swanson added. "The players who use this time wisely will get better. And the players who don't get out there will obviously remain at the same level.

"It's like in any sport: the high achievers are the ones who show up early, stay late, and practice on their own."

And given the unprecedented circumstances, Swanson also hopes his players aren't taking anything else for granted either.

"Of course, this is a good time for all of us to focus on what's most important too," he said. "Our friends and family."